Just a Little Help
by The Bare Necessities
Summary: James has managed to get Lily out on a date, but he still needs to ask her for a little help...LilyJames oneshot


I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or anything like that.

This is just a little Lily/James one-shot I thought might be cute. Hope you like it!

It was the best day of James Potter's young life. In all his seventeen years he never dreamed of anything like this happening. He was sitting at a table, alone, with Lily Evans. On a date, with Lily Evans. After months, no, _years _of pining after the red-head she had finally agreed to go on a date with him.

Lily, on the other hand, did not seem to share James' enthusiasm. In fact, as James got closer and closer to the punch-line of his joke involving a hag, a warlock and a house elf walking into a bar, she seemed to become more agitated. As James reached the end of his joke Lily reached the end of her last nerve.

Instead of laughing, as is customary, Lily clasped her hands in front of her face and raised her eyes to the heavens. She slowly lowered her hands and eyes and whispered, "I really don't like you, Potter. And I really don't want to be here right now."

Naturally, James was confused. She had agreed to go out with him the night before. He was utterly bewildered. He knew girls were weird, but this was just…strange. He decided to actually voice his question instead of sitting there with his mouth open.

"If you didn't want to go out with me why didn't just you say no? Like usual?"

Lily smirked at this. She leaned forward before replying, "You just looked so pitiful I simply couldn't say no. I was afraid you might start crying, actually."

He hadn't been crying, he thought. It must have been a trick of the light. He was sure she had been sincere when she agreed to the date. But if she wasn't, then this must be…"Are you telling me this is just a pity date, then?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Lily shrugged her shoulders. "Why? You want to cancel?" She asked hopefully.

James weighed up his options. He was one step above every other guy at Hogwarts. Lily Evans had actually deigned to go out with him. So he replied accordingly, "Are you kidding? I'll take whatever the hell I can get."

Lily was not impressed by his response.

"You know, Potter, that is just so typical of you. You are so…" She paused to think of a word so James brought it upon himself to finish her sentence,

"Charming? Worldly?"

"Annoying," Lily finished.

James was definitely getting annoyed. This girl was always telling him how awful he was. He wasn't that bad. His Mum loved him, why couldn't Lily?

"You can't say that. You don't even know anything about me,"

It was true, the girl was making accusations, false ones, and James would not stand for it. Even if the girl happened to be the most gorgeous girl in the world, he was still annoyed.

"I know plenty about you," She replied.

"Alright, what's my favourite colour, then?" James leant back in his chair with a smug look on his face.

Lily assumed that James would very unimaginative in his choice of favourite colour and so she guessed, "Red."

James looked genuinely pleased for the first time, "Wrong. My favourite colour is purple."

Lily was shocked. She had always felt, along with the rest of world, that purple was more of a, feminine, colour. James Potter did not seem like the type of boy to be in touch with his feminine side. She decided to voice her shock,

"Are you serious, purple?"

"What's wrong with purple?" James asked. Purple was a cool colour. It was the colour of his Quidditch team, the Bristol Bees. (Yellow was already taken.)

Lily was sick of games, she couldn't be bothered explaining her feelings on the colour purple. She wanted to prove her point and then leave.

"Look, I don't have to know your favourite colour to know that you're arrogant and, and, just not a nice person, generally speaking,"

James laughed inside. She couldn't think of what to say, that mean she was softening. He decided to change the subject,

"Actually, Evans. Now that you're here, I've been meaning to ask you something,"

"Wha-, don't change the subject!" Lily was not finished berating him. Just because she couldn't think of any appropriate adjectives did not mean that she was done talking about his big head. James, however, chose to ignore her and continued on with his new subject,

"You see, I have this problem. I think you can help me."

Lily glared daggers at him,

"I really doubt it,"

James just smiled and put his elbow on the table to hold his head up.

"Well I've been having some trouble holding my head up lately. I was just wondering if you could, ah, help me to…deflate it…a bit?" He watched closely for her reaction.

Lily was shocked. Thoughts were running through her head at a million miles an hour. Did he really just say he wanted to change? For her? All of a sudden she was feeling rather hot around the collar. She forgot why she had accepted James' invitation in the first place. she forgot that there were other people in the room and just stared at him. It was strange, but she could feel her anger melting away at the look on his face.

"What d'you say Evans? Will you help me?" James prompted her.

Lily finally came to a conclusion in her mind and with a small smile on her face answered,

"Well Potter, I have to say, it would be my honour."

His head shot straight up to look at her in disbelief. She just started laughing. He joined her. Lily didn't really know why she said yes, she just felt she had to. Besides, he was rather cute when he was desperate.

Eventually the laughter subsided and James looked nervous again. He looked down at the table and said in a small voice,

"Hey, I know this isn't a real date, but do you think it'd be alright if I kissed you?" He looked up to gauge her reaction.

Lily just smiled her small smile and blushed before saying,

"I think it'd be more than alright." But then, as an afterthought she added, "Just as long as you remember, I'm only doing it because I feel sorry for you."

James smiled as he leaned in closer to kiss the love of his life.

"Yeah, I know."


End file.
